


Going Digital

by lycchi



Series: weeb escapades [2]
Category: Butterfly Soup (Visual Novel)
Genre: Gen, a big fucking joke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-26
Updated: 2019-10-26
Packaged: 2020-12-07 10:02:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20974070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lycchi/pseuds/lycchi
Summary: A cyber-virus threatens to change the world as we know it. Will a rag-tag computer club save the world?





	Going Digital

**Author's Note:**

> I think at some point, Brianna Lei mentioned associating One Week by Barenaked Ladies with pee pee ketchup man??? Unless I'm misremembering. If you're from my 'era,' you may be familiar with the iconic Digimon Movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ8BFffUe_E
> 
> This isn't a crossover, it's not even ppkm. It's a sub-par, self-indulgent joke. Happy (early) Halloween. If you're partying, going trick-or-treating or anything, take care.

When Ester awoke, she found herself lying on a bench in an unlit hallway. 

That was strange. She must have dozed off, but she didn't remember falling asleep at school...

...Wait, was this even school? Wasn't today Sunday? Why would she be at school? 

Wherever she was, how did she end up there?

Ester instinctively reached into her pocket for her phone.

And thank god she had it on her. She wouldn't know what she'd do without it; her phone was like her security blanket.

But when she looked down at the screen, she noticed that it was already unlocked.

That was....weird.

No, that wasn't even the weirdest part about it.

Why.... why was the screen glitching???

What the hell? She was always careful not to drop it, she took good care of her phone. She even made sure to wipe off the fingerprints from the screen daily, just in case someone stole her phone and tried to unlock it...

This didn't make sense.

Now, even if she was in-danger, she had no way of contacting the outside world. Frustrated and annoyed, she tucked her phone back into her pocket. All she could do now was walk around and search for clues to help her piece together her situation--where she was and how she got there in the first place. 

The halls were eery. There were rows of lockers and from that alone, she deduced she was at _a_ school. It didn't mean it was the school she went to, though.

'Cause if it was, since when did their school have the budget to afford high-tech electronic locks?? And if they did, they sure knew how to blow all their money.

Ester made multiple attempts to open the doors to (what she assumed to be) classrooms, only for them to autolock as soon as she had even touched the doorknob. 

Really, what in the actual futuristic bullshit was going on??

It didn't help that when it was this dark, everything looked the same. It was like the hallway was never-ending. ...That, or it conveniently led to an all-important destination, just like they always do in RPGs. 

And, of course, right as she reached the end, there it was, a lit room. Kind of. 

There weren't actually any lights on.

So where was the light-source coming from??

She wasn't one for taking unnecessary risks, but she needed to do something. This was the last and only unlocked door and she could hear murmurs.

What choice did she have?

Ester stepped into the room. 

A computer lab? 

Without a window in sight, the only light in the room was coming from a large computer at the centre of the room. There goes the school's budget, again. 

Aside from that, there were shadowy figures. She counted seven in total. Or was it eight? She couldn't be entirely sure that was right. 

...Maybe they were her teammates? 

At least she hoped they were. No, it was her gut feeling. 

Ester walked over to a somewhat familiar figure with braided hair, assuming (and hoping) it was Liz, standing off to the side with someone taller, whose face was obscured--Chryssa, maybe? 

"Oh, thank god. It is you Liz, Chryssa." Ester let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the two seniors. "...But where are we exactly? Today's Sunday, we shouldn't have baseball practice."

"What do you mean 'bass-ball'?" Liz questioned her.

"No, not 'bass-ball.' _Baseball_." Ester couldn't tell if Liz was teasing her. She had a hard time reading her in general, but she didn't really have the patience for jokes. 

"What's a 'baseball'?" Chryssa questioned Ester.

"...You're literally one of the few people on this team who has actual experience playing baseball. This is stupid." 

"This is a computer club, silly," said Liz. 

"Yeah, didn't you join because of some anime about hacking?" 

Did she mean .hack? ...No, this really wasn't the time and place.

This wasn't some elaborate prank, right? She came here to look for answers, not this shit. 

"No, I--" 

"Sorry to interrupt your conversation. Nah, who am I kidding? I'm not actually sorry." Was that..... Akarsha? When did Akarsha start wearing glasses? And were those glow-in-the-dark braces? "We have less than 69 hours to save the world from a life-threatening cyber-cryptid and we need all the help we can get. They call him Big Foot." 

".....Why didn't you just say we have only 8 hours left." Noelle joined the conversation. She was wearing a medical mask and a lab coat. ...Did she have a cold? Ester was pretty sure computer viruses didn't affect the human immune system. 

"What's the fun in that, Frenchman?" Thanks to how relatively dark it still was, as Akarsha smiled, her braces created the illusion of a creepy, floating smile. 

Noelle sighed loudly, making sure Akarsha knew she was unimpressed, and turned her attention back to Ester. "Oh. It might seem like a joke, but they really do call it Big Foot." 

The rest of the team seemed to be hovering around the brightly-lit computer screen, but Ester couldn't see who was actually seated at the computer.

...Was the chair really big or was the person just very small?

Of course, the answer to that question was the latter.

"ARGH. Shit. It says All-Systems Denied. I need a password, NOW." .......Why was Min wearing sunglasses indoors? This wasn't The Matrix and Ester was pretty sure hacking was outside Min's skillset. 

"Try B-A-G-E-L-S," Diya suggested.

"I love the way you think, Diya. But sorry, that just ain't it." 

"How about...D-O-G-S?" 

"We already tried that." Min gently squeezed Diya's hand, before turning back to the computer screen. 

"What about Y-A-O-I?" Sumi suggested. 

"Really?? The world is supposedly ending and that's all you can think about?" said Ester. 

"Well, at least I'm helping," Sumi replied with a shrug. 

"I'M TRYING AND IT'S NOT WORKING," Min yelled out in frustration, slamming her hands on the keyboard. 

What was Min expecting? Even B-A-G-E-L-S was a more likely contender than Y-A-O-I, and that's saying something.

The real question they should all really be asking is: Why of all things does 'yaoi' still exist when no one seems to have a freaking clue what 'baseball' is? This was a baseball team. Yeah, the Semes was their (un)official team name, but that didn't change the fact that it made Ester want to die a little on the inside when she imagined having to explain any of it to her family. It was thanks to her family's already-existing curiosity in her interests that she habitually used her web browser's incognito mode, not because she was looking at anything that really warranted it, but because she'd rather just not have to explain herself to her parents. She knew that they cared about her or whatever, but it just felt weird having them hover over her, asking her to explain the plot of whatever show she was watching and even going as far as to ask if they could join in.

...Anyway, only half of them had the smarts to _be_ in an actual computer club. Who in their right mind would trust a group of kids to save the world, especially _this_ group of kids?? .......Not that the adults were having a hard time increasingly bringing it closer to its ruination. But did she join thanks to her simple, casual enjoyment of sports anime? ...Yes... Did she join to see the world end thanks to her teammates' weird tendencies? NO.

"Try Y-A-O-I-H-A-N-D-S!" Grace yelled out, visibly nervous at the increasingly tense atmosphere.

They already tried Y-A-O-I, she couldn't really expect _that _to wor--

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, I-I'm in," Min responded, incredulous at her own success. 

Seriously??

"That's what he sai--" 

"FUCK THE SHUT UP AKARSHA." 

\--

Ester awoke in a cold-sweat. She could still hear her teammates' voices reverberating in her head, but at least she was in the safety of her bedroom. 

"Thank god. Just...... another... nightmare." 

Before going back to sleep, she checked her phone to make sure it was still working. 

Thankfully it was. 

No, of course it was.

It was just a stupid dream. 

\--

"You had a dream about digital cryptids? You mean .........Tamago...tchis?" Liz responded without confidence. "Cryptids, though. Maybe Chryssa's been a bad influence?" She laughed. 

"HEY--"

But before Chryssa could dispute Liz's claim, Min interrupted. 

"THOSE DUMB EGGS WITH BUTTONS? Jun asked me to 'babysit' his. I took it with me when I went to practice my pitches the other day and may have accidentally.... thrown it..."

Ester quietly tucked her Tamagotchi back into her jacket pocket. She wasn't going to risk its life, not today, not ever.

".....Anyway, are any of you willing to donate 50 cents to my fund to buy Jun a new Tamagotchi? Also if any of you blab, YOU'RE DEAD MEAT." Min finished off her bold (but also unsurprising) statement by making a show of the butterfly knife she had been hiding.

"Hey, what did I say about threatening murder? Min, give me that knife," Chryssa ordered. 

"DAMMIT." Min relented, giving up the knife just as easily as she had shown it off. 

What was she even expecting when she was practically waving that knife around for the world to see?? 

"_S-sugoi_, I can't believe you had a bootleg dream of the Digimon Movie." Sumi made a point of making fun of Ester, but her comment had struck something in her, something unpleasant.

"...You've got to be fucking kidding me. The Digimon Movie is one of the worst pieces of media to have surfaced in anime dubbing hist--"

Before Ester could finish her angry speech, a voice chimed in. 

"But it gave us All Star! IT BEAT OUT SHREK!" Akarsha shouted.

"...You could say that it was ahead of its time." Grace shared a thumbs up with the other two weebs who nodded their heads in agreement.

"If Wendigomon and Shrek had a dance battle, Wendigomon would definitely win," Sumi added. 

"...Please, STOP," Ester cried out. "I'm begging all of you." She didn't come here to be attacked. Practice had only just begun, but she already wanted to go home. 

When exactly did the nightmare end and reality begin?

Ester might as well have been asleep still. 

**Author's Note:**

> I had fun writing this, despite finishing with the exact same cop-out I'd use whenever I'd attempt to write a fantasy setting. Akarsha's braces are a detail I referenced from the bonus artbook when you donate $5+ for the game. I recommend checking it out if you're interested in the thought process behind design changes!
> 
> While the Digimon Movie is questionable for its attempt to combine multiple disconnected plots/timelines and isn't necessarily 'good,' it still holds a special place in a lot of people's hearts. Even Ester would probably still listen to its soundtrack as a guilty pleasure. That's the message I wanted to convey.
> 
> Anyway, only shooting stars break the mold. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKkZt3jqCfc


End file.
